Barreling towards the binary at the center of the Beta Serpentis system, Commander Lee racked her brain over how they might destroy the transwarp gate without sacrificing themselves. As the minutes turned to an hour, and as an hour became two, the ideas fell away, one by one, until at last she had none left.

“Are there really no other options?!” Commander Lee lamented exasperatedly as the binary’s accretion disk grew before them. A station of aggrieved Andorians, weaponized synths, and Borg corrupted computer systems had not been able to stop them, but had they finally met their match? Was this really the end of the road? Dr. Brooks had to have an idea, right? Just like every time before…

“I’m afraid not,” the Dr. Brooks replied regretfully. The aged physicist felt sorry for young Cora Lee. He’d told her to stay behind, that she still had too much life to live, but she’d insisted on joining him, clinging to a false hope that somehow she’d save them both. Instead, her optimism had simply ensured that she would die alongside him. “It’s this, or we allow the colonists of Beta Serpentis to summon the Borg into the heart of the Federation.”

They’d been lucky to commandeer the shuttlepod at all. It had only been by happenstance that they’d stumbled upon it deep within Salvage Facility 21-J. The problem though was that the Type 17 was designed for simple, intra-system transport. It had no weapons, and it lacked even the controls to turn the deflector into a particle beam. The only weapon it had was its warp core, and it was non-ejectable. That meant they were going to die as they turned the shuttlepod into an antimatter bomb to destroy the transwarp gate and the homing beacon before the colonists of Beta Serpentis III could deliver the Borg Collective straight into the heart of the Federation.

“How are you so calm?” Commander Lee asked as she stared at the aged physicist. “How can you just sit there and accept this?” She had charged fearlessly into the Battle of Nasera, never for a minute doubting herself, but now she realized it wasn’t due to some bold heroics and a lack of fear. It was simply because she hadn’t comprehended her own mortality, emboldened by Admiral Reyes’ rallying cry that they would achieve victory. Now though, as they approached the transwarp gateway with no chance of survival, she realized she was absolutely terrified. She wasn’t ready to die.

“I have seen the future,” Dr. Brooks offered with a depth to his tone that spoke to experiences she couldn’t even imagine. “I understand what awaits the galaxy, and what the future has to lose should we pull away.” In this fragile moment of the Federation’s existence, he was certain that a Borg incursion was not part of the future he had seen. “This has to happen.”

“But what about you?” Commander Lee asked meekly, her voice trembling. “And me?” She understood his words at a macro level, but it wasn’t all macro. There was also the micro reality that, in what they were about to do, she and Dr. Brooks would be snuffing out their own lives. She didn’t know a reality without her, and she didn’t know how to process it.

“Me? I will die, and you will die,” Dr. Brooks replied flatly.

She looked at him, shocked at how matter-of-fact he had said it. “Did you… did you know, from the moment we went aboard Salvage Facility 21-J, that this was what was going to happen?”

“That we were going to die here and now?”

She nodded.

“No, I did not,” Dr. Brooks explained. “Contrary to what others feared of me, I am not reckless. My goal has always been to preserve the timeline as it is meant to unfold. It would have been foolish of me to seek out my own future, or anything that could impact the decisions I am to make. That would have been antagonistic to my own aims.” It was a very scientific thing to say, but it wasn’t very human.

“So how do you know we will die?” she asked.

“Because, in the end, we all will. You, me, everyone.” As an old man, he was simply closer to that natural end that she was. With age came clarity, and he’d simply had more time to come to accept it. “Someday, even the universe itself will die a cold death as entropy drains its last ounces of energy.”

Commander Lee did not look comforted by the thought.

“But we have an incredible opportunity here, Cora,” Dr. Brooks offered, his eyes showing an uncustomary empathy. He needed her to stay the course. “We have the opportunity to control the how and the why. We can do this and save generations from a life of servitude under the grip of the Collective. Few have such an opportunity to make their final moments count like that.” He meant it. He really did.

The console before him began to beep, alerting them that short-range sensors had just picked up the duranium and steel of the transwarp gate. It was right where Lieutenant Balan’s young friend had told them it would be.

“Adjust heading to three three zero mark seven, and increase shields to compensate for the increasing gravimetric gradient,” Dr. Brooks ordered as the shuttlepod shook under the shearing forces of the Roche lobe. “We’re five minutes out. I’m going to start prepping the catalyst to overcharge the warp assembly.”

Right then, another klaxon went off. It had just picked up the Borg homing signal coming back to life. The colonists had just started the summoning ritual.

Aboard the USS Serenity, racing at warp 9.98 across the vastness of space, they detected it too. “Sir,” reported Lieutenant Commander Eidran from his position to Captain Lewis’ left on the central command island. “I’m picking up a new signal source coming from the Beta Serpentis system. It’s a Borg homing signal.”

“Is it the one we’ve been searching for?” asked Captain Lewis.

“I cannot be certain, but that would be a fair assumption,” offered Lieutenant Commander Eidran. “It’s not coming from the colony on Beta Serpentis III though.” He rechecked the readings. “It is originating from near the centroid of the binary star’s lemniscate.”

Curious, thought Captain Lewis. That would put the signal well within the Roche lobe, an area of intense gravimetric sheering, plasma transfer, and electromagnetic radiation as the red dwarf secondary accreted material into the A-type main-sequence primary. You’d only bring something there if you meant to hide it from detection, as all that radiation disoriented conventional sensors. “Notify the USS Diligent that we’re going for the beacon.”

“We’ve got another problem,” frowned Lieutenant Commander Eidran. “I can’t seem to raise the Diligent. Something’s jamming up our subspace carrier waves.”

“Explain.”

The Betazoid fiddled with the controls at his console, but he wasn’t making any progress. Lieutenant Commander Eidran stood up and crossed to the operations station, relieving the ensign who stood at it. He worked the controls for a minute as he tried to sort out what was going on. “The source of the interference is massive interference originating from Beta Serpentis IV. It’s almost like… no… ummm…”

“That’s not an explanation, Commander,” Captain Lewis snapped back. The young first officer was serviceable under normal operating conditions, but the way he got discombobulated when things got complicated seriously annoyed the aged spook.

“Sorry, I’m just trying to make sense of it,” Lieutenant Commander Eidran apologized. “If I didn’t know any better, I’d say it’s a boosted and bandpassed variation of the Borg interlink frequency.”

The bridge went silent, and everyone looked over at him. Captain Lewis’ hand slid instinctively towards the phaser he always wore on his waist. He knew what had happened the last time a Borg signal had been broadcast across the vastness of space.

“It’s mangled though,” Lieutenant Commander Eidran added, his mind going to the same place. They’d both lived through Frontier Day in orbit over Earth, and neither wanted to see a repeat. “Even if we hadn’t all gone through the Starfleet Medical procedure, I don’t think it would have any impact on us. It probably couldn’t even control a drone with a fully functional cortical node.” 

“Then what is its purpose?”

“I can’t be certain,” Lieutenant Commander Eidran cautioned. “But my best guess is that someone is using the massive signal strength of the Borg transceiver as a jammer.”

“Would that explain why we couldn’t reach the Ingenuity all day?” Captain Lewis’ spidey senses kicked in as a hypothesis began to form in his head. The Borg homing beacon had been brought here, and now they had an indication that a Borg transceiver was in play as well. Were the colonists of Beta Serpentis III playing with Borg tech? He’d read the intelligence briefings after Admiral Reyes had turned the USS Ingenuity for Beta Serpentis III. As a dumping ground for the debris from Wolf 359, the system had a forty year history with Borg tech.

“Very likely.”

“And what is the Ingenuity doing right now?” Captain Lewis asked. “Do we have her on our long range sensors yet?”

“We do,” Lieutenant Commander Eidran confirmed. “She just came onto the scopes. It looks like she’s just sort of sitting in orbit of Beta Serpentis III.”

Captain Lewis furled his brow. Why would she just be sitting there with all this Borg tech lighting up across the system? He knew Admiral Reyes well enough to know that wasn’t her modus operandi. “Any indication of foul play?”

“Not exactly.”

“What the hell does that mean?”

“I’m not detecting any signs of damage,” Lieutenant Commander Eidran explained. “But her energy signature is significantly more faint than I would expect from a fully operational Pathfinder-class cruiser.”

“Lieutenant Selik, prepare to adjust heading…” Captain Lewis ordered. A jamming signal coming from Beta Serpentis IV, an active Borg homing beacon within the Roche lobe of the Beta Serpentis binary star pair, and a Starfleet ship sitting stationary in orbit of Beta Serpentis III meant something was clearly amok. Unfortunately, they had a choice before them. They had three separate situations but only two ships, and they couldn’t even coordinate with the Diligent. That meant they’d just have to make a call.

Aboard the USS Diligent, Captain Dorian Vox was grappling with the same debate. They couldn’t communicate with Captain Lewis, and they couldn’t raise the USS Ingenuity. They’d have to independently decide which issue to tackle first. “How far out are we?”

“0.04 light years at 9.98,” reported the flight control officer at the conn.

“Comms, we still can’t raise Serenity or Ingenuity?” Captain Vox figured he’d check one more time. Things had just gotten very complex, and the squadron’s strategic operations officer would much rather be moving with deliberate coordination than without.

“Negative sir,” confirmed the communications officer. “The Borg signal is completely jamming our carrier waves.” Just like it had over Earth.

The choice seemed clear enough to Captain Vox. Although their mission had originally been to intercept the Borg homing beacon, and he wanted to confirm that the USS Ingenuity was still in working order, he couldn’t look past that Borg signal. Not after Frontier Day. “We’re going for Beta Serpentis IV first.” He’d seen the intelligence report as Captain Lewis. He knew what horrors were hidden there within the troposphere of the gas giant. “Gator, get us a bearing.”

“Zero zero two point six mark one point four.”

“Conn, adjust to intercept.”

“Aye sir,” confirmed the flight controller. At high warp and several minutes out, the course change was almost imperceptible. “Intercept course locked in.”

Captain Vox turned back to the navigation officer. “Gator, any indication of Serenity’s target?” He wondered what choice Captain Lewis was going to make.

“I can confirm it’s not the gas giant,” reported the navigations officer. “But based on the relative orientation of the binary star pair and the colony on Beta Serpentis III, I cannot confirm whether she’s headed for the Ingenuity or the homing beacon.” The USS Serenity’s vector crossed both.

“Should we adjust to match?” asked the conn officer, questioning whether it was right for them to split their firepower as they barreled towards a problem of unknown proportions.

“Negative,” Captain Vox replied. “Maintain course.” Captain Lewis had his plan, and they had theirs. They needed to stop that interlink signal. He just hoped that Captain Lewis knew what he was doing as well.

Neither of the captains were yet aware of the transwarp gate, nor of their colleagues and their desperate plan to save the system and the galaxy.